


Fixing what went wrong

by Clockwork



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Coda, F/M, Fluff, Happily Ever After, Love, M/M, Polyamory, Post Season 1, There's a puppy, fixed that for you, fuck triangles, poly marriage, polyamorous
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 21:45:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18600016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clockwork/pseuds/Clockwork
Summary: ... Summary is? I hate triangles. Give me poly. So this is about three or so years post 1x13 wherein bullshit decisions made badly are fixed, friendships are healed and saved, and Michael Guerin gets what he deserves. Love and family. Also, there's a puppy.





	Fixing what went wrong

Maria sat at the bar, the bar’s record book open on the scarred bar top in front of her as he counted the bank for the night. It’s always nice in the bar like this when most everyone else is gone, and she’s just enjoying a place that was her home before for a lot of years, but was now sliding into being her second home. 

The room smells of beer and sweat and the pine cleaner she used on the floor, the hints of whiskey and the wet desert air from earlier rains like soft undertones. The lights are on above her, to the back of the bar, but the dance floor is dark and the music turned off, and everything soft and quiet.

Except for the sudden sound of something thumping on the flood and then glass breaking. Maria sighed, shaking her head as she set down the money she’s counting.

“What was that?”

“Sorry, DeLuca. I owe you a bottle of whiskey.”

“You owe me two,” she calls back, smirking as Guerin comes strolling out from where he’d been working on stocking the bar as barback for her. She hadn’t asked him to, but he’d started doing it about the same time his hand had been healed, taking the opportunity to be near her while they figured things out.

Or while she figured out he wasn’t human, he was still in love with Alex, and you really can’t choose who you love. “You took one last week that you didn’t think I saw you take,” she points out. 

“You’re really going to hold that against me?” Coming around the bar with that natural swagger he had that drew so many an eye, pressing himself against her side with an easy practice from months of distracting her at the end of the night. Taking off his hat as he leans in close to her, his lips nearly brushing her ear. “Really, DeLuca?”

“Really, Guerin,” she teased, turning her head to kiss him tenderly, almost as if hesitant. It’s not that she’s shy though, not with him. It’s merely enjoying being able to share that with him, loving the intimacies they share between them no matter how small. “Now go clean up that bottle before your date gets here.”

His brow furrowed, lips curling up a bit in his confusion. “Far as I know, you’re my only date tonight. Taking you home.”

“Wrong. I was asked this morning to find my own way home so that you could go on a date. Something about stargazing out in the desert. So I’m taking your truck home.” She holds out her hand. “Keys please.”

“You think I’m giving you my keys?” 

She doesn’t answer, especially not when there’s the short blast of a horn from outside. Instead she just wiggles her fingers. 

Michael looks to the door, and then to Maria. Rolling his eyes, he digs his keys out of the pocket of his jeans and drops them in her hand. Leaning in, he kisses her cheeks. 

“Let us know you made it, okay?”

“I will,” she says, giving him a pat on the butt. “Go. I’ll clean up your mess, Guerin. You’ll owe me.”

“I already do,” he called, laughing as he headed out. 

“And don’t wake me up when you come in!”

Cleaning up the glass and the whiskey, ensuring the books were set for the night, and she has the order she needs to put in the next day, Maria locked up the bar, and headed out to where Michael’s truck sat at the edge of the lot. There was a red rose like one got from the gas station lying on the windshield. 

Shaking her head with a wide smile as she tossed the rose on the seat and headed home, tired and ready for bed.

Not that she had that luxury when she got home. Not when she’s met at the door by a soft whine coming from inside, the scratching of small claws on the door.

“Mindy! Get down,” she called, quickly unlocking the door and pushing it open. She barely had a chance to bend down to catch her before the beagle pup, barely six months old, tried to race past her and out the door. Cuddling Mindy in her arms, Maria fought to keep her from grabbing the rose and eating it before she could set it down on the counter.

“Did Alex leave you home alone?” Cooing at the puppy as she tries to scritch her ears, laughing as she writhes and squirms all over Maria, licking her face madly. “Yes he did. Horrible horrible daddy, huh?” 

Laughing as she set Mindy on the floor, watching as she raced around Maria’s feet and trailing her into her bedroom, eyeing the open door to Michael’s room and the mess within and pausing to close it before Mindy destroyed everything on the floor. Pretty much everything he owned. Why had she even bought them hampers when Michael obviously didn’t know how to use one?

Smiling though as she headed into her room, watching Mindy trip over her own feet in her hurry to rush up the small stairs on one side of Maria’s bed and sprawl out on the tattered quilt that lay over her comforter. And on top of a an envelope with her name written on it in neat, even handwriting. 

Rescuing the envelope before it became confetti, Maria settled on the end of the bed to read the paper within, still with Alex’s careful, precise handwriting.

_Maria,_

_I haven’t heard either of you talking about your anniversary this weekend, but don’t think I’ve forgotten. I know that day came with a lot of pain for us all, and that it all seemed like we wouldn’t have a chance to fix anything, nonetheless everything. I know it hasn’t been easy, which is why I don’t want either of you to forget._

_Enclosed is an itinerary for Ten Thousand Waves in Sante Fe. I’ve set you both up with a lot of stuff you’ll love and Michael will hate, but he needs it. Kyle’s going to come stay with me, mostly to play with Mindy I suspect, but we’ll keep one another entertained._

_Don’t tell Michael where you’re going until you get there, and make him get the massage whether he likes it or not._

_I love you both, and thank you for letting me steal him tonight. We’ll see you in the morning._

_All my love,_

_Alex_

_P.S. Don’t let Mindy fool you. She’s been fed and had too many treats for her own good._

Carefully folding the letter back up, Maria couldn’t help but smile as she went out and tucked the papers in her purse. She knew better than to tell Michael that Alex was pampering them. He was still learning to handle gifts, to handle that both Maria and Alex just liked taking care of him just because he deserved it. He’s always deserved it, and now he has people that will take care of him, but they have to find ways of doing it that he won’t fight. Like last minute dates to go stargazing, or using that to sneak information to Maria to spoil Michael on the anniversary of…

Maria paused, considering that. Their anniversary? She had assumed in reading it that Alex meant the day that Michael had shown up at the Pony, his hand healed and his common sense gone as he thought he’d just leave behind pain and love and claim happiness with someone else. Maria had straightened him out pretty quick on that one, but she’d loved Alex since they were kids, and she was in love with Michael, and she realized that Liz had been right all along. You couldn’t help who you loved, or if you loved more than one person. 

It wasn’t like Alex to get something like a date so wrong, and she moved to the calendar on the kitchen wall; the only way they kept anything straight in their lives. Nope. This weekend wasn’t the anniversary of that first kiss. Then she stopped.

That day hadn’t been their first kiss. Their first kiss had been… Maria counted days in her head, slapping at the calendar. “You petty son of a bitch,” she muttered, shaking her head as she flipped off the light, heading for her bedroom, realizing that this weekend marked several years since a day in the desert with a faith healer, Guerin, and sand in places she still didn’t want to think about.

Stripping down and curling up into bed, Maria lifted the covers so that Mindy could slink down under them and curl up by her side. Stroking the beagle’s silky soft ears, she chuckles softly into the dark. 

“You know what, Mind? Your daddy is going to pay for this. You just wait and see,” she murmured, rolling onto her side and letting Mindy settle back in. But there’s no heat to her words, falling asleep with a smile on her lips. They could be a handful, and sometimes they were a pain in the ass, but they were hers.

Even when they came in just after dawn, obviously drunk and giggling and whisper calling for Mindy, who took off for them, giving an already deepening bark of excitement. 

“I’m killing you both in the morning,” Maria called, snuggling deeper under the blankets. 

 

A good idea as the light from the hall suddenly flooded her room. A moment later Michael crash landed at her side, grabbing Maria and pulling her close. Alex was at least more sedate as he came slinking in to sit on the side of the bed by Michael.

“DeLuca!” He kind of whisper yells her name as he cuddles into her. “Guess what?”

“You’re drunk and a jerk?”

Michael giggled at that, tugging down the blanket to kiss her… well he got her shoulder. “And I love you.”

“Not enough to let me sleep though?” 

“Awww. Deluca. Come on.” 

There was a lot of pout in those words and Maria sighed as she shifted and wriggled and rolled over to face Michael because, dammit, he knew how to get to her. 

“Did I not tell you not to wake me up?”

“You did,” he said, grinning at her as he leaned in, kissing the tip of her nose.

“And you woke me up anyway?”

“Nope. I woke up Mindy. Not my fault that woke you up.”

“Alex Manes, you let your boyfriend do this? You’re going to let him use that excuse?”

“I let him do nothing,” Came the groggy reply, and she realized he was already falling asleep laying back against the headboard. “And your boyfriend too,” he muttered.

Maria sighed, knowing she wasn’t going to win this one. She never did. In truth, she never wanted to win, though she wouldn’t mind more nights where she got to sleep through the night than not. That might be nice.

“I better get breakfast in bed,” she sighed, curling in closer to Michael… who was already snoring softly. Lifting her head, she could see where Alex’s fingers were tangled in wind tossed curls showing where that constant contact and need for connection so fierce in both of them. Closing her eyes, she heard Mindy scramble back onto the bed, likely curling up in Alex’s lap. “I love you too, Guerin. You too, Manes.”

“I love Mindy,” Alex said and Maria thought she could hear him actually smiling. “Love you both, and there will be breakfast in bed.”

That was all she needed to hear to settle in and let the soft sound of Michael snoring remind her how special everything was as she fell asleep.


End file.
